Ah, yes. The great Quad. There's no other album like it. It's not the most flawless album ever made - it's just the best. The rich, layered sound creates an atmosphere that can turn a hot mid-July afternoon in Dallas into a foggy, dreary morning in Brighton, overlooking stormy seas. Yet not for a moment does it seem bombastic - its subject matter is far too personal for anyone who remembers what it is like to be young. From the hard-rocking, disillusioned anger of "The Real Me" and "The Punk and the Godfather" to the subdued loneliness of "I'm One," it covers all the big topics we all face.

It all builds up to the grand conclusion - the last two songs. The first of these is an instrumental covering the four themes of the schizoid boy Jimmy. Towards the end of this song, all of these themes are playing simultaneously (one of them is even in a different time than the others!). I can't describe just how awesome this part of the album is, but if you're not in a state of total catharsis at this point, you must be dead. Either that, or you're a cyborg with no emotions, because there's no way this music can fail to establish an emotional connection with you. Just then, when you begin to think that you could lose yourself in this blissful sound for all of eternity, it suddenly stops. And then there is no need for an emotional connection - you ARE Jimmy. You are experiencing what he is experiencing. As the sad, echoey opening notes of "Love, Reign, O'er Me" begin to play amidst the sound of rain and ocean waves, you remember that you are stuck on a rock in the middle of the ocean with no way out. It never fails to make me cry.

I can't be the only one who was thinking of Kevin Murphy playing the "Plant that reviews music" while reading that... I just can't be...

Went to see "Babel" yesterday and saw the preview for "Reign Over Me" with Roger singing and Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler doing his latest grown-up movie. It looks very promising. Are we sure Michael Jackson didn't buy the publishing rights to the Who songs to go along with his Beatles catalog?

Went to see "Babel" yesterday and saw the preview for "Reign Over Me" with Roger singing and Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler doing his latest grown-up movie. It looks very promising. Are we sure Michael Jackson didn't buy the publishing rights to the Who songs to go along with his Beatles catalog?

For the love of God, don't even SAY something like that! It might come TRUE!

(BBQ thinks about it briefly, vomits, and vomits a second time. He then vomits some more, and follows it up with more vomiting. Finally, for good measure, he pukes)